It’s fun to make your own dye from fruits, vegetables, and spices! They don’t always come out the way you think: Cabbage, for example, looks purple but dyes the eggs pale blue. Experiment with other foods and spices: tea or coffee, paprika, grated beets, grape juice. Try painting on an egg with yellow mustard and then wiping it off. Try anything you think might work—and see if it does!
Kitchen Gear:
- Measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
- Medium-sized pot
- Colander, strainer, or sieve
- Small bowl
What You Need:
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup yellow onion skins, from about 2 onions (for orange dye) or
- 1 cup torn-up purple cabbage leaves (for pale blue dye) or
- 1 teaspoon turmeric (for yellow dye)
- Hard-cooked white eggs
Instructions:
- Put the vinegar and water in the pot with either the onion skins, cabbage leaves, or turmeric. Put the pot on the stove, turn the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and boil the mixture for half an hour. Turn off the heat.
- Cool the dye to room temperature (about half an hour), then pour it through the colander into a small bowl (the dye will pour through, and you can throw away the solids left behind in the colander).
- To color the eggs, soak them in the dye mixture for at least half an hour. For really rich colors, try leaving them overnight.
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